FlightTrack: a $5 App Can Save You a $200 Flight

Last weekend, my fiancĂ© and I went to San Francisco for our friends’ wedding. We had a flight out of San Diego at 9.40am, which is awfully early for me as it doesn’t give me enough time to do my daily online routine. Anyways.

So we get at the airport about an hour before departure and I see a huge security line and while Tina is taking her time to look at the monitors to find out what gate we have to go to, I just take a quick glance at it and see “Gate 7”. I grab Tina and tell her to hurry.

We go through security (see the boring video of my iPhone going through the X-Ray machine) and then I start walking to Gate 7. Tina tries to stop me saying that the monitors said “Gate 4”. Instead of checking again, I insist that it is Gate 7.

So we get at Gate 7, sit down and start waiting, and waiting, and waiting… There are other people waiting too. I hear the staff speaking in the microphone and talking about an upcoming flight at 10.30, but nothing about our 9.40 flight. It’s 9.25 and we should have started boarding. I’m started to worry a bit.

Then I remembered I had this FlightTrack app that’s supposed to track flights in real time. I launch the app, enter our flight information, and I realize that Tina was right; I was wrong! Our flight was indeed at Gate 4 as she had said before. Without saying much, I stood up and told her we had to go to Gate 4. While we’re walking over there, I pretend I am not annoyed by the fact she keeps telling me how right she was and how wrong I was.

We get there just in time for boarding and as usual, I looked at her and said “well, once again we can thank the iPhone for saving the day”. We laughed. I admitted my mistake and everything was fine.

I’m not sure how and when I got the FlightTrack application (the developer might have sent me a promo code) but I realized what a great app it was and how useful it can be if like me, you don’t pay much attention…

FlightTrack comes with some handy features that allow you to:

  • Track flights worldwide
  • View live flight maps with weather radar
  • Check gate numbers, delays and cancellations
  • Find flights up to 11 months in advance
  • See aircraft type, speed and altitude
  • Tap to send detailed FlightTrack status emails
  • Save future flight itineraries

The app is available in the App Store for $5 and you can get the $10 pro version that includes TripIt integration.

Do you have examples of how some iPhone apps saved your butt before? If so, please share your story by leaving a comment below.